Heartland New Zealand has lifted its first-half net profit by 41 percent after strong growth from its core assets, including from its new home equity release business.
The bank's net profit of $23.5 million for the six months to the end of December represented a 10.2 percent return on equity.
The bank reduced its non-core property portfolio by a further $11.8 million to $40.8 million.
Heartland said it was confident future earnings would not be hurt by continued sales of those assets.
Heartland's chief financial officer Simon Owen said all parts of the business performed well.
"We've had strong growth in our core-underlying assets, so our business, rural and consumer businesses have all grown strongly," he said.
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